I’ve been thinking about trading with some people who are out of country. (Poland, China, Turkey,etc.) Some have negative feedback though. If i were to be scammed by someone in the US, i would be able to contact the police about it and maybe get a court date for small claims or something of the sort. If i got scammed by someone out of country, what would i be able to do about it other than leaving negative feedback?
If you paid via Paypal, you have some recourse of action to get your money back. Regarding trades, it’s not so easy. Law enforcement has “better things to do”.
You can file a formal complaint where the person lives. You can file suit where YOU live since that’s where the crime was committed. But good luck collecting on that.
You might see what the community can do. Someone may know this person and may lay some pressure on them to get the stuff taken care of.
on an out of country trade though, there really Isn’t anything i can do :-\
Declare Warrrrr!
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Not really. You’re just double screwed. It sucks.
What I like is I’m buying a pair of throws from a known player here this weekend. Face to face, cash for throws. But I’ve also bought from him twice via BST and have met him before in person. I got no issues with the guy.
I’ve already contacted the president. jk. lol.
i guess ill refrain from international trading from now on then, thanks for the info Studio42!
If you get scammed anywhere, you really cant do much
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There’s a lot of truth in that statement.
So you say some of them have negative feedback. If you want to do business w/them, do it on your terms or not at all. Frankly, there’s enough good stock available domestically that there’s no need to do international deals.
I got scammed by someone in another country on a different forum. The absolute best thing I did was make certain that everyone knew he was a scammer. I left a detailed account of how he operated and saved a lot of other people.
Did it get me a yoyo? no
Did I get compensated for the loss? no
However, I did get the satisfaction that nobody else got scammed. Protecting one another has real value when using bst.
The fact that you are asking this question is an indication that you have doubts. Never use the bst when you doubt someone. That’s my recommendation.
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You can’t really do much about being scammed by another private party on the internet regardless of where it occurs. The idea that you could contact the police and go to small claims court is almost an impossible dream. You’ll get nailed with court costs and even if you win the other person can just stiff you. That is, if you can even prove that other person was involved since you were really only conversing with a screen name.
I basically won’t even bother with international sales when you’re talking items as cheap as a yoyo. It’s just not worth the hassle. The only way I’ll consider it is if the buyer is willing to have no tracking and to relieve me of any responsibility for the item after I send it.
I didn’t know how limited your options are when being scammed period! I’ll have to be a lot more cautious when I trade with anyone, America or not! Thank you so much for the info guys, I’ll sure it will save me from a scam!
Nothing beats the feeling of receiving a package that’s travelled halfway round the world - so don’t let the whole “international” thing get you down - there are lots of respectable people in other countries who would love to trade.
Just apply the usual rules, check feedback, and if anything seems odd, rather back out.
awesome advice and you have done the community a great service. This is what all of us true and real throwers need to do. We that are honest and true need to stick together to re-enforce the values that most here share. So although I hate that you were scammed, my hats off to you for giving back. Hang in there, karma always comes back around eventually.
I’ve had that happen…
This is kinda abstract, because: 1 it is not about getting scammed out of a yoyo and 2 because it was not a scam at all. < But I am telling you guys this, just in case anybody actually thinks any Legal source: Police/Courts/etc. may be of any help at all when ‘something happens to you’.
A Few years ago, I bought my girl a Brand New car. She parked it right across the street in front of our 2nd level bedroom window… every day. Any noise outside, she/I could just look out the miniblinds and see the car. One night a very drunk lady came around the corner, fast and wide and couldn’t make the turn. She bounced off a car and then panicked and stepped on the gas instead of the brakes. She bounce off 6 more cars, like a pinball machine. My girl and I both heard the first impact and looked out the front windows at the same time amazingly. It happened soo fast, there was zero time to actually do anything from where we were at and that was obviously a sad thing. Because we Both watched her final impact; SLAMMING right into my girls’ brand new car. Serious Damage all around. < Lets just say,’ I didn’t let her get away’ and leave it at that; but wait> She got busted and taken away by the Police. They charged her with about a dozen offenses, including All the damages to All the cars she hit. They found her guilty of Everything and the Court even got her to Sign a paper stating that she had to PAY everybody for ALL the damages to All their cars.
What finally happened? Simple She Paid nothing to anybody… Not a single Penny to anybody. Most of us contacted the Police/Court/insurance agents(for advice) and asked what the heck was up with that? We got letters from the County Clerk stating that Small problems like this, are not pursued by the Courts or Police. They have more important things to do than track down deadbeats.
What is the primary point of my little story? Simple> This Chick not only had a looooong playing crimimal record, but also used several different names to commit a multitude of crimes over a several year period. And the Damages to all the cars in the accident, totalled more than 40 thousand bucks. And the car she was driving wasn’t even hers; haha. and the Cops said they can’t bother with her not coughing up the money (The Cops… the Court… the Insurance Agents… A Lawyer I contacted all had the same exact view)< Waste of time and man power.
So ‘if’ somebody Burns you for a Yoyo; just think of what kind of help you may Expect from any Authorities. None. They don’t care.
So what do you do when trading? Find out as much as possible about the person you are trading with. Address, phone number, real name, character references(other yoers that will verify the person is not a ‘gamer’), use Paypal. And don’t do the friggin Gift option. Don’t be soo cheap. Paypal charges a Fee but…BUT they provide a service. Why do so many people want to use the service for free? Doesn’t anybody use ‘Math’ anymore? Don’t tell people,’ Pay by Paypal only and mark money as a Gift. If you don’t mark as a Gift, you need to pay the Paypal fee’. The Seller should calculate the Paypal fee and just add it to the price of the yoyo they are selling. Why do people use Paypal to help insure/safeguard their yoyo transactions, but are too cheap to bounce for the Service fee? I know Paypal is a money game, but they provide a service for the fee. Any time you send money as a gift and it is Really Not a Gift, you are literally a Mini-Scammer. How Ironic.
Other things to do: when you get the actual name of the person, get their mailing address and phone nunber. Make sure their landline number matches their mailing address. Always, like in Always use Delivery confirmation or some sort; so you can make sure your package got to its’ final destination. It is worth the extra few bucks to Know where stuff ends up. And so far I am just talking about domestic trading. I personally dont even bother with International trading, simply because I don’t even get that concerned with the actual person I would be trading with. I am more into not being too confident in the mail services getting the packages to the final address? I know some of you guys are from out of the US and do good successful trades all year long. I have little problem trusting ‘you’. I have concerns about packages getting lost; you could say. But my international comments are just my personal opinion and mail does get moved around the World every day of the year; but if your yoyo gets lost half way to Poland; do you really care how many other packages made it somewhere? haha.
Last closing view… Maybe a few of the things I suggested to get to identify a potential trader sound too much like ‘the 3rd Degree’. But if you do ask some questions and the person you want to: sell to, buy from, trade with; gets/sounds evasive; forget it. Dont fall for the old crock about,’ We are a Yoyo community and I am trading with other yoyoers; they must be honest like me; right’? People are people. Yoers are just people with strings on their fingers. In every group of people: Tennis players, Online game players, card collectors, you name it; there are always a few Crooks. Yoing is no different. Most of us are totally honest. but there are several people on the boards at any given time, that are playing games. And they are not even short on money. They are just Cheaters and they will burn you if they can. That is just the nature of humans; most are good and some are not.
The end; finally.
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I’ve been scammed a few times. My credit card has been defrauded more times than I can count. Visa always takes care of the credit card problems. I eventually got my money back each time.
The first time, I was scammed on an eBay iPod – eventually the Paypal account was frozen. An attorney general had pursued the guy b/c he scammed a bunch of people, and Paypal refunded my money.
A second time, a landlord took a deposit for renting an apartment in college. The landlord then defaulted on his mortgage and fled to Canada w/ the money. That time I got lucky and the new owner credited me for the deposit.
A third time, I purchased a fancy PDA. One or both people of a couple was running the auction. They broke up. Each blamed the other. Eventually I called a person who lived down the street from the listed address. It was a weird conversation, because I didn’t know them, but the guy gave me the phone number of the place where they stayed. I called that phone number and contacted the landlord. The landlord in turn gave me the workplace of woman involved. I then called her at work and let her know that her supervisor might want to be informed about the scam she was running. I got a check in the mail a week later.
This was all in the U.S.A., but because the “crime” was on the Internet, nobody wanted to claim jurisdiction. Police wouldn’t help me.
Long story short – be aggressive. Be very aggressive. Collect all the information you can about the person. Apply all the social pressure you can. Don’t be mean about it – just go at it methodically. Nobody else will do it for you. If it’s a kid, you need to find ou who their parents are. I haven’t been scammed for a yo-yo yet, but I have had 2 or 3 sellers wait a month before sending me the yo-yo I paid for. Let the person know that you’re irrational about it. That the value of your time and the value of the item doesn’t matter. That you’ll make their life as uncomfortable as possible.
This is a reason I don’t trade if I bought it I want to keep it and then honest people don’t come around that often its really hard to tell because after the trade they can delete there account and if I bought the superstar I wouldn’t trade it at all even for a clyw sasquatch just because I’ve been fooled before when I was younger I used to trade snacks at school and I gave them my snack and they ran assay with there’s so that’s why I don’t trade your choice away.